Free Republic

A 14-year-old activist and blogger was shot in the head on her way back from school in Pakistan’s Swat Valley on Tuesday, the latest in a troubling string of incidents involving children in Pakistan. Malala Yousafzai was injured along with two travel companions when Taliban assailants opened fire on their vehicle in the town of Mingora. By evening, Yousafzai, who started blogging about the Taliban’s ban on girls’ education in Swat when she was 11, was in stable condition and en route to a military hospital in Peshawar.

The normally-reserved Yves Smith asks whether Obama should be impeached over it. Democratic Senator Wyden – the head of the committee which is supposed to oversee it – is so furious about the lack of access that he has introduced legislation to force disclosure. Republican House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa is so upset by it that he has leaked a document on his website to show what’s going on. What is everyone so furious about? An international treaty being negotiated in secret which would not only crack down on Internet privacy much more than SOPA or ACTA, but would...

The Justice Department on Monday charged a former CIA officer with repeatedly leaking classified information, including the identities of agency operatives involved in the capture and interrogation of alleged terrorists. The case against John Kiriakou, who served as a senior Senate aide after ending his CIA career, extends the Obama administration’s unprecedented crackdown on disclosures of national security secrets to journalist. Kiriakou, who was among the first to go public with details about the CIA’s use of water-boarding and other harsh interrogation measures, was charged with disclosing classified information to reporters and lying to the agency about the origin of...

SNIPPET: "Three Pakistani men pleaded guilty Monday to terrorism-related charges of supporting the Pakistani Taliban, according to a release from the U.S. Justice Department. At a hearing before U.S. District Judge John Bates in the District of Columbia, Irfan Ul Haq, Qasim Ali, and Zahid Yousaf pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiracy to provide material support to the Tehrik-e-Taliban (TTP), a designated foreign terrorist organization. Ul Haq, Ali, and Yousaf were arrested in Miami on March 13 and charged with one count of conspiracy to commit alien smuggling. The three men allegedly ran an alien smuggling operation out...

Peshawar, 17 August 2011, Militants from Tehreek Taliban Pakistan (TTP) were again united against the Aman Lashker (Peace Forces) in Mattani, they threatened families whose work with Aman Lashker for Peace and area. More then 10 families were goodbye Mattani because of Militants Threatened. This was disclosing by Shenshah, the relative of Ijaz Ahmed Khan whose lost life in 21 July 2011 Blast at Mattani. Shenshah is one of them whose leave his home city, because of Militants threatened and now he face problem. Shenshah is the Uncle of Ijaz Ahmed Khan and he leaves Mattani area two week before,...

Peshawar 15 August 2011, 35 Taliban of Tehreek Taliban Pakistan (TTP) detain in Central Jail Peshawar. That detaining different parts of Khyber PukhtoonKhwa (KP) province. According to sources of Central Jail Peshawar yesterday escaped Taliban Commander Nadeem Abbasi was the Leader of TTP Taliban in central jail Peshawar. Nadeem Abbasi was also called as Punjabi Talib. In the leadership of Nadeem Abbasi Taliban were lining well organized in Central Jail Peshawar and they create religious environment of jail. Also the Banned organization of Lashker Islam (force of Islam) that now a day attached with TTP, more then 250 Taliban were...

Peshawar, 13 August 2011. Provincial home department has issued ordered of three officer of central jail Peshawar. The action was taken after the TTP terrorist escaped yesterday from Peshawar University and three police cops was killed. According to ordered ShahJehan Huammani Supertaindent Jail, Deputy Supertaindent Jail Ajmal Khan and the Doctor of Jail Hospital Dr. Iftkher were suspended. Home Department also makes investigation team for the incident, why these officers send terrorist with out full security for treatment. The action has been taken by Chief Minister Notice the incident. Home Department issued order Khalid Abbas as Supertaindent and Maksood Khan...

Peshawar, 13 August 2011 TTP (Tehreek Taliban Pakistan) has declared the responsibility of Lahori Gate blast & suicide attack on police at Peshawar. Taliban has said that it’s was the result of army operation in tribal area. They informed the media that our attack will remain continue. The Taliban spokesman Omar Khalid has talk with the media from unknown place; in which he claim that our attack will remain on forces, until they didn’t stop operation, which was started in tribal area for US government. He said woman bomber is our new strategy against Security forces and our fighter were...

Peshawar 12 August 2011, TTP militants has start firing on police van that’s carrying TTP commanders for treatment to hospital today in Peshawar University. In result three police cops were killed in attack. According to security official TTP commanders Nadeem Abbasi and Zaki whose detain before were dental problem and police van has carrying them to private hospital for treatment. When the vehicle near to Irnum Hospital Peshawar, Militants has start firing on police van. In result three police cops including Mohammad Tariq and Jaffer Khan were killed. Attackers manage to escape with the prisoners. Security official start search operation...

SNIPPET: "Note: PWP stands for PassWord-Protected, meaning that a login is required to view - let alone participate in - discussions. Since some in the audience don't understand the significance of this, allow me to spell it out: if only members can read the forum, then anyone observed reading the forum is a member. They have zero deniability (they couldn't have accidentally "wandered into" the site), and they had to make the effort to join (an expression of intent). While the goal here is to present a range of sites, the fact is that the jihadis themselves have largely coalesced...

SNIPPET: "Al Qaeda commander continues to pose a threat to U.S. and South Asian security as Pakistan’s military and intelligence services look the other way” IPT News June 22, 2010 SNIPPET: “Top Al Qaeda commander Ilyas Kashmiri poses a major threat to U.S. interests both at home and abroad. Described by intelligence agencies “as the most effective, dangerous and successful guerrilla leader in the world,” Kashmiri heads Al Qaeda’s military operations wing. He figures prominently in two recent high-profile terrorism indictments issued in Chicago. But Kashmiri remains free in South Asia and in control of a renowned Al Qaeda terror...

Alleged WikiLeaks source suffers out of spotlightThe Irish Times - Tuesday, December 21, 2010 Concern is growing over the harsh conditions of Bradley Manning’s detention as he awaits his court martial, writes LARA MARLOWE, Washington Correspondent WHILE JULIAN Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, celebrated his release on bail last week with cocktails before being driven to “mansion arrest” at a 650-acre estate in Sussex, Private First Class Bradley Manning was mouldering away in solitary confinement in the brig at the Marine Corps base at Quantico, Virginia, deprived of exercise, news or even a sheet or pillow. Assange (39) is preparing...

We are told by careful pollsters that half of the American people believe that American troops should be brought home from Iraq immediately. This news discourages supporters of our efforts there. Not me, though: I am relieved. Given press coverage of our efforts in Iraq, I am surprised that 90 percent of the public do not want us out right now. Between January 1 and September 30, 2005, nearly 1,400 stories appeared on the ABC, CBS, and NBC evening news. More than half focused on the costs and problems of the war, four times as many as those that discussed...

The two biggest stories this week are WikiLeaks' continued publication of classified government documents, which did untold damage to America's national security interests, and the Democrats' fanatical determination to repeal "don't ask, don't tell" and allow gays to serve openly in the military. The mole who allegedly gave WikiLeaks the mountains of secret documents is Pfc. Bradley Manning, Army intelligence analyst and angry gay. We've heard 1 billion times about the Army translator who just wanted to serve his country, but was cashiered because of whom he loved. I'll see your Army translator and raise you one Bradley Manning. According...

The release by Julian Assange's web site Wikileaks of classified documents reveals that U.S. military intelligence discovered chemical weapons labs, encountered insurgents who were specialists in the creation of toxins, and uncovered weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. However, Washington, DC officials and the news media have ignored this information.

WASHINGTON — Daniel Ellsberg, the former Defense Department official who leaked the Pentagon Papers during the Vietnam War, is urging government insiders to provide similar classified documents about the invasion of Iraq. Joined by other whistle-blowers and former government employees, Ellsberg said at a Sept. 9 news conference that claims of government deception and lies have “little credibility” unless supported by documentary evidence, which often is available only in classified materials. The document that came to be called the Pentagon Papers was a 7,000-page study of U.S. decision-making in Vietnam that was classified “top secret.” Ellsberg leaked the study to...

A cache of a quarter-million confidential American diplomatic cables, most of them from the past three years, provides an unprecedented look at backroom bargaining by embassies around the world, brutally candid views of foreign leaders and frank assessments of nuclear and terrorist threats. ome of the cables, made available to The New York Times and several other news organizations, were written as recently as late February, revealing the Obama administration’s exchanges over crises and conflicts. The material was originally obtained by WikiLeaks, an organization devoted to revealing secret documents. WikiLeaks intends to make the archive public on its Web site...

Classified U.S. diplomatic cables reporting corruption allegations against foreign governments and leaders are expected in official documents that WikiLeaks plans to release soon, sources said Wednesday. The whistle-blowing website said on its Twitter feed this week its next release would be seven times larger than the collection of roughly 400,000 Pentagon reports related to the Iraq war which it made public in October. Three sources familiar with the State Department cables held by WikiLeaks say the corruption allegations in them are major enough to cause serious embarrassment for foreign governments and politicians named in them. They said the release was...

SNIPPET: "Some comments • I have to assume that al-Balawi was thoroughly debriefed by al-Qaida before being sent on this mission, and I'm surprised no one has sought to correlate his "infiltration" of al-Qaida with Abu Yahya al-Libi's book released over the summer: "Guidance on the Ruling of the Muslim Spy" • See also: Al Qaida: Western Spies Multiply "Like Locusts"."

In what further strengthens the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan's (TTP) direct involvement in the failed Times Square bombing plot, a federal indictment released earlier this week has revealed that the extremist outfit had paid $12,000 to Faisal Shahzad to plot the explosion at the busy commercial intersection. Shahzad, a US citizen of Pakistani origin currently in detention, has been accused of planting an explosives laden SUV at Times Square. According to The Washington Post, the 10-count federal indictment alleges that Shahzad received payments of $5,000 and $7,000 in transactions with an accomplice affiliated with the Taliban. The first payment was received in...